All tag results for off broadway

Alain Boublil is the librettist and lyricists behind such HUGE musicals as Les Miserables and Miss Saigon - and the legendary Frenchie just premiered a new work in Manhattan, appropriately titled Manhattan Parisienne.

However, do not go into this show expecting a massive chorus or flying helicopters. Manhattan Parisienne is is super intimate - a mostly two person musical in a small theater. There are no reserved seats! General admission!

The show is a sweet and simple modern-day love fantasia between a French woman and an American man and the musical features some staples of the French and American songbook. From Edith Piaf and Serge Gainsbourg to the Gershwins and Sinatra.

The story is almost irrelevant, though. Manhattan Parisienne is all about the song selections. And they prove to be a very enjoyable experience!

Performed without intermission, the show is like a fancier cabaret act. And because it's mainly all about the songs, our one big note is…. while the cast features some great singers, the intimacy of the theater and the grandness of these songs called for some PHENOMENAL singers. There is a big difference between great and phenomenal singers.

However, this cast did a fine job and it's a more than fine show!

With some bigger voices or bigger names, though, this could play to much larger audiences.

If you're a fan of musicals and/or improv, then you will love the new and aptly titled Blank The Musical, currently running at our favorite off-Broadway venue, New World Stages.

The show is a fully improvised musical and the audience fills in all the blanks - title, lyrics and even helps out with the music.

A very funny (and young) cast bring to life this one-night-only musical and an equally skilled house band comes up with original music on the spot!

It's all super fun and playing for a limited time only.

We really enjoyed it and the only note we have - if it were to extend it's run - is that the audience interaction is limited to the first quarter of the show. After the setup is done so is the audience. It'd be really engaging and vicarious for all audience members if one or two were picked at certain parts to come up and be a part of the show.

We would not be surprised if a couple of these funny actors who can sing very well end up on Saturday Night Live.

So get your tickets to Blank The Musical and see them if they hit up your town or come back to NYC!

And if you're a fan of Joy Behar, then you will really enjoy her new one-woman show, Me, My Mouth & I, now playing off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theater.

If you're a fan of The View, however, you will be disappointed that while Behar touches upon her time on the show and her former colleagues, she doesn't delve deep or spend much time on either. She doesn't share her opinions or true feelings on any of the above, instead just sharing funny one-liners.

Me, My Mouth & Iis very enjoyable but suffering from an identity crisis. Not quite a show yet not quite a standup act.

It would have benefitted GREATLY from a theatrical director, something that Behar chose to forgo.

A great director would have helped Behar, who wrote the show, finetune her material and focus the star and the precious 90 minutes of a typical one-person show. While showing a clip from the 80s of a young Joy was fun, it didn't add much and we instead would have preferred to spend those minutes more wisely.

Behar mentioned her daughter once or twice and focused A LOT more time on aunts and other relatives, something we found very odd.

Minutes spent fawning over Catherine Beneuve seemed confusing and an attempt to tie a throughline through the show, which didn't quite work.

And while it wasn't a homerun, it was still - like we said above - "very enjoyable" and a great first effort at writing a one-woman show.

With a director on board and more fine-tuning, Me, My Mouth & I could transfer to Broadway and do quite well.

People love Joy Behar - us included! She is winning and we want to see her win!

In fact, the cast of 50 Shades! The Musical Parody extended an open invite to the Nymphomaniac star to come see their play!

They figured that since Shia likes to get "rough in the theater" their play would be PERFECT for him… Seeing as it's a parody based on 50 Shades of Grey which is, ya know, full of S&M and bondage and all that stuff.